Who is new Google chief executive Sundar Pichai?

4 months ago

Google’s reshuffle as part of the creation of new parent company Alphabet has seen Sundar Pichai made the new CEO of the internet giant.

Pichai is not a surprising appointment as he’s a man with plenty of Google pedigree – before the appointment he was the product lead on Android and was the first to suggest the company designs its own web browser; the result would become Google Chrome.

But it is a meteoric rise nonetheless, having come from humble beginnings in India. His family lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Chennai, and Pichai did not have a bedroom – instead sleeping on the floor of the living room with his younger brother.

His exposure and love of technology began at a young age, thanks to his father’s job with British firm General Electric Company. Sundar’s father Regunatha has said in the past that his son would often show a keen interest in his dad’s work, and when the family got their first telephone when Pichai was 12, his interest in tech hardware was cemented. He discovered a talent for remembering lots of numbers, and having led him to study metallurgical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, he then won a scholarship to Stanford University in the US.

The plane ticket to get him there is said to have cost more than his father’s annual salary.

Pichai began studying material science and semiconductor physics, but dropped out to take a job as an engineer at processor chip maker Applied Materials. Pichai then joined Google in 2004 after finishing business school and briefly working as a consultant.

His first role at the internet giant was working on the Search taskbar in the Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox web browsers, but Pichai quickly advised that Google should build its own. Though he was met with resistance by then chief executive Eric Schmidt, Pichai was backed by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and in 2008 the firm launched Chrome. It is now the most popular web browser on both desktop and mobile devices.

He then took on the role of supervising the development of several Google apps, including Gmail and Google Maps, before taking over Android in 2013 from the software’s founder Andy Rubin. During his time in the role Android has expanded into smartwatches, TV, cars and will shortly begin mobile payments. Android also remains the most popular mobile operating system in the world.

There was then a further promotion in late 2014 when he became product chief, and effectively second-in-command in the day-to-day running of Google.

He’s been a prominent figure at live events for some time too.

He now consolidates that role as the new CEO of Google, with only co-founder Page above him in the company’s hierarchy. Pichai’s popularity within Google and the wider tech community was highlighted by the number of congratulations he received on the news; including from Microsoft chief Satya Nadella.

His new role at a “streamlined” Google will now see him overseeing Search, Maps, Apps, Advertising, YouTube and Android, with the task being to keep Google ahead of the competition.